WC4 Fan Remake Revamps Lexington and Much More (March 4, 2022)

Ok, so it's an issue with the original asset making those parking spots/maintenance bays too small and then the team kept them the same size as the originals.

Well no, the original asset didn’t have proper bays, it had hellcats parked at 45 degrees which didn’t match the fmv at all.
We bumped up the bay sizes from the original but it's still slightly too small for the Hellcat (other ships are ok) and the placement marker is slightly off centre which means we have to shrink them even further.
 
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Yeah, that is a real problem with inconsistent design decisions in products, when re-touching them in some shape or form.
What to aim for? What type of accuracy? In this case, for gameplay accuracy or FMV consistency? What happens if one of these sources is not consistent in itself? Or if a fix introduces another inconsistency (such has the player's Hellcat being bigger than the "stored" Hellcat 😉)?

An interesting example is the phaser-from-torpedo bay problem from the episode Darmok from Star Trek: The Next Generation, for those who are unaware let me quote the wiki:

This episode is also notable as it is the only time a phaser beam is emitted from the main photon torpedo tube. It is admitted to be a post-production mistake in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion (2nd ed., p. 177). This was corrected for the remastered version by replacing the shot with a close-up of the phaser array from "The Best of Both Worlds". The original shot does appear on the Blu-Ray in the trailer for "Darmok" only.

Was it correct to replace this or not? Arguments in favor, arguments against. Plus, there were many licensed documents featuring this "error" in things like phaser-strip counts of that class of ship... Is a production error something that needs to be retained? What is George Lucas allowed to change in Star Wars until it is no longer a fix but a modification-of-spirit?

My stance on this was and always has been clear. Any reedit or remake or remaster is always a re-interpretation and one can re-interpret whatever you want. Personally, I always prefer a in-universe consistent experience so that the suspension of disbelief is intact. Which means no phasers from the torpedo tube, no galactic empire officers with upside-down rank insignia and just a single, consistent, one-size-Hellcat everywhere, if you ask me.

And if, as a result, the Lexington of the Remake is a bit longer, or wider, or larger, or different than the original, who cares? Or if Hellcat-fighters are scaled differently compared to carriers in the original game? Again, who cares. Because:

The original is not sacrosainte, it is re-interpreted by the sheer existence of a remaking effort. The important thing to get right is the fantasy behind that original experience, being a fighter pilot on a WW2-style space carrier. And keeping that fantasy intact takes priority over adhering to any original number. I think Pedro and colleagues are getting it pretty right for the most part.
 
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The original is not sacrosainte, it is re-interpreted by the sheer existence of a remaking effort. The important thing to get right is the fantasy behind that original experience, being a fighter pilot on a WW2-style space carrier. And keeping that fantasy intact takes priority over adhering to any original number. I think Pedro and colleagues are getting it pretty right for the most part.

I agree with this, and we are trying to match the FMV, only looking to the gameplay assets when there is no reference there. That said as we are using the original script files diffences in dimensions would potentially introduce issues so that is one area where we are trying to be consistent (for our own sanity and to keep down bugs rather than treating the source as holy).
 
Yeah, I am aware of your team's sources-hierachry list and totally approve of it 👍. But shrinking the Hellcats to fit in the bays while not shrinking the actually flying Hellcats kind-of falls outside of that list, right? Not saying that decision is wrong, just saying that it is a decision.
 
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Yeah, I am aware of your team's sources-hierachry list and totally approve of it 👍. But shrinking the Hellcats to fit in the bays while not shrinking the actually flying Hellcats kind-of falls outside of that list, right? Not saying that decision is wrong, just saying that it is a decision.
It's not a long term solution, but remodelling work has all kinds of knock on effects to the texturing.
For the demo we need a new animated cockpit, stormfire effects, jump in effects etc etc. Things like that will get fixed but probably not in time for the demo.
 
Oh no, Pedro has called me out via the blog 🤣... Anyway, those shield effects are really REALLY good.

You weren't the only one. It's mostly a pre-emptive comment, I'm likely to become very busy shortly after the next CIC birthday so am desperately trying to get the demo out before then which may mean not everything gets polish.

Glad you like the effect, they were a pretty quick addition. When there's time we'll try and spruce up the fighter shields using a similar effect
 
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